news
- 2012

July 23, 2012—SSAI Inducted into "Best Places to Work" Hall of Fame

At the Westin Virginia Beach Town Center, Om and
Sara Bahethi,
Anoop Mehta, Mauricio Peredo,
Rob Fleishauer, Susan Nyce, Dee Jones,
Nancy Brambani, and Sue Murray (not pictured)
celebrated the award.On July 23, SSAI representatives attended a luncheon honoring “Best Places to Work” winners, selected by the Hampton Roads Business Journal. SSAI was especially recognized by a Hall of Fame designation, given to those companies that have won repeatedly. SSAI achieved that status particularly quickly because it was in the top three of its category for the two preceding years.

Hall of Fame inductees have the chance to compete for progressive levels from bronze to platinum over succeeding years, so we look forward to continuing our success in demonstrating the ways in which we value our employees.

July 10, 2012—SSAI Completes Successful CMMI Appraisal

SSAI is pleased to announce that it has been appraised at Maturity Level 2 and Capability Level 3 under the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) for Development, Version 1.3 model. The appraisal was conducted by K3 Solutions, which cited SSAI’s strengths in configuration management, including a comprehensive change history and full traceability. K3 also noted, “Science Team involvement from requirements definition through delivery closure ensures built-in validation throughout the process.”

The appraisal covered SSAI development practices in support of the NASA Clouds and Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) project. All process areas evaluated were described as fully implemented, with no weaknesses noted. SSAI commends the dedication and hard work of our CMMI team, led by John Robbins, who served as Site Coordinator. We also thank the appraisal team, which included Tammy Ayers and Denise Cooper. They worked along with NASA’s Jonathan Gleason to approach the appraisal collaboratively. James Cook served as SSAI’s Appraisal Sponsor.

This effort supports SSAI’s focus on continual improvement by providing a foundation to assist for developing repeatable processes that can be implemented across future SSAI systems and software engineering projects. We are very gratified by this important accomplishment.

June 15, 2012—NASA Web Site Features Work of SSAI Scientist

Imagery created from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite’s Ozone Mapping Profiler Suite (OMPS), along with a video discussion from Colin Seftor, an SSAI atmospheric physicist, was recently featured on the NASA Web site. SSAI is pleased to have the important work of demonstrating the far-reaching effects of how wind transport smoke plumes recognized in this way. The following link connects to the story: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/fires/main/siberia-smoke.html

Fires burning in Siberia recently sent smoke across the Pacific Ocean and into the U.S. and Canada. Suomi NPP satellite's Ozone Mapping Profiler Suite tracked aerosols from the fires taking six days to reach America's shores. These false-colored images make the data stand out. The blue and green colors represent less smoke. Yellows and pink represent more smoke. Smoke density is identified by the level of transparency in the coloration. The less dense the smoke is the more you can see through it, and the more dense it is, the less you can see through it. Credit: NASA/Suomi NPP/Colin Seftor

March 23, 2012—SSAI Wins SAS Contract at NASA/GSFC

Science Systems and Applications, Inc. (SSAI) is pleased to announce that NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has selected SSAI to continue to provide science, technology, and research support services under the Support for Atmospheric Sciences (SAS) contract. Click here to see the NASA announcement. Specifically, SSAI will support GSFC efforts that implement a comprehensive research and technology development program directed towards observing, monitoring, characterizing, modeling, understanding, and advancing knowledge of the Earth’s atmosphere. The required services are broken up into six separate areas as follows:

1. Instrumentation: Requirements for supporting the design, development, testing, maintenance, calibration, and operation of sub-orbital instruments for atmospheric and solar observations. The instruments include sensors operated at GSFC, from the ground, and aboard aircraft, balloons, or other sub-orbital platforms.

2. Data Processing and Analysis: Requirements for supporting the processing and analysis of data collected by instruments observing the Earth atmosphere or solar radiation from spacecraft, sub-orbital platforms, or the ground.

3.Earth System Modeling and Analysis: Requirements for supporting the development, testing, operation, improvement, software optimization, and documentation of computer models that describe Earth system processes including: solar spectral and total radiation, atmospheric radiative transfer, climate simulations, modeling the chemistry and transport of trace species on regional-to-global scales, cloud-resolving models, coupled land-atmosphere models, data assimilation, and development of next-generation Earth system models, including the coupling and integration of existing models to form novel, interdisciplinary models.

4. Documentation and Presentation: Requirements supporting the preparation of research proposals, refereed journal publications, manuscripts for symposia proceedings, and presentations at conferences, symposia, workshops, and seminars.

5. Education and Public Outreach: Requirements for supporting the communications of research objectives and results to the general public, to NASA management, to authorizing and appropriating committees, and for informal and formal education at all levels.

Dr. Om P. Bahethi, SSAI’s President, has observed, “This contract win is a reflection of the outstanding support that talented and dedicated SSAI staff provide to our GSFC customers and a continuation of atmospheric science contributions that began with SSAI’s founding 35 years ago. We at SSAI are thrilled to be selected, and look forward to continue supporting GSFC scientists, engineers, and technologists as they prepare the next generation of aircraft, spacecraft, and instrumentation that will advance our understanding in Earth science.”

March 23, 2012—SSAI Announces Executive Leadership Changes

Science Systems and Applications, Inc. (SSAI) has announced changes in its executive management. Dr. Mauricio Peredo will succeed Mr. Ronald Estes as Chief Operating Officer effective on April 2, 2012. Mr. Estes is retiring after more than 45 years in the aerospace industry. “Mauricio has contributed to SSAI’s outstanding performance and significant growth since 2000, and we look forward to his continued contributions to SSAI’s success in his new role,” stated Dr. Om Bahethi, SSAI’s President.

Dr. Peredo has more than 24 years of industry experience that spans scientific research and program management of space and Earth science projects, including 12 years with SSAI as Program Manager and most recently as Director of Business Development. Prior to joining SSAI, he held technical and program management positions at Raytheon and Hughes STX. Dr. Peredo holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as B.S. degrees in both physics and mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin.